Islamic State tightens grip on Syrian govt road to Aleppo

BEIRUT, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters were
reported to have tightened their grip on a Syrian government
supply route to Aleppo on Tuesday as the army battled to retake
the road as part of its campaign to seize the city.

As Damascus accepted a U.S.-Russian plan for a "cessation of
hostilities" between the government and rebels due to take
effect on Saturday, heavy Russian air strikes were also said to
be targeting one of the last roads into opposition-held parts of
Aleppo.

The plan announced by the United States and Russia on Monday
is the result of intensive diplomacy to end the five-year-long
war. But rebels say the exclusion of Islamic State and the al
Qaeda-linked Nusra Front will give the government a pretext to
keep attacking them because its fighters are widely spread in
opposition-held areas.

The Syrian government, backed by Russian air strikes since
September, said it would coordinate with Russia to define which
groups and areas would be included in what it called a "halt to
combat operations". Damascus also warned that continued foreign
support for the rebels could wreck the agreement.

The Russian intervention has turned the momentum President
Bashar al-Assad's way in a conflict that has splintered Syria
and mostly reduced his control to the big cities of the west and
the coast.

Damascus, backed by ground forces including Lebanon's
Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is making
significant advances, including near the city of Aleppo which is
split between rebel- and government-control.

The Islamic State assault has targeted a desert road which
the government has been forced to use to reach Aleppo because
insurgents still control the main highway further west.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports the
war using a network of sources on the ground, said Islamic State
fighters had seized the village of Khanaser on the road, which
remained closed for a second day. A Syrian military source told
Reuters army operations were continuing to repel the attack.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of eastern and central
Syria, differs from rebels fighting Assad in western Syria
because its priority is expanding its own "caliphate" rather
than reforming Syria through Assad's removal from power.

The group has escalated attacks on government targets in
recent days. On Sunday, it staged some of the deadliest suicide
bomb attacks of the war, killing around 150 people in
government-controlled Damascus and Homs.

A U.S.-Russian statement said the two countries and others
would work together to delineate the territory held by IS, Nusra
Front, and other militant groups excluded from the truce.

In Geneva, U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said: "This is a
cessation of hostilities that we hope will take force very
quickly and hope provide breathing space for intra-Syrian talks
to resume."

Fawzi said there were plans for additional aid deliveries to
opposition-held areas blockaded by government forces near
Damascus, including the Eastern Ghouta.

RIGHT TO RESPOND

Damascus stressed the importance of sealing the borders and
halting foreign support for armed groups and "preventing these
organisations from strengthening their capabilities or changing
their positions, in order to avoid what may lead to wrecking
this agreement".

The Syrian military reserved the right to "respond to any
breach by these groups against Syrian citizens or against its
armed forces", a government statement added.

The main, Saudi-backed Syrian opposition body said late on
Monday it "consented to" the international efforts, but said
acceptance of a truce was conditional on an end to blockades of
rebel-held areas, free access for humanitarian aid, a release of
detainees, and a halt to air strikes against civilians.

The opposition High Negotiations Committee also said it did
not expect Assad, Russia, or Iran to cease hostilities.

The powerful Kurdish YPG militia, which is currently
fighting both Islamic State and rebels near Aleppo, is
"seriously examining" the U.S.-Russian plan to decide whether to
take part, a YPG official told Reuters. "There is so far no
decision," said the official, declining to be identified because
he is not an official YPG spokesman.

The YPG, an ally of the United States in the fight against
Islamic State in Syria, has recently received Russian air
support during an offensive against rebels near Aleppo.

Britain said on Tuesday it had seen disturbing evidence that
Syrian Kurdish forces were coordinating with the Syrian
government and the Russian air force.

Turkey, a major sponsor of the insurgency against Assad,
said it welcomed plans for the halt to fighting but was not
optimistic about a positive outcome to talks on a political
transition.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Ankara
had reservations about actions that Russian forces could take
against Syria's moderate opposition and civilians. Turkey is
worried about the expansion of YPG influence in Syria, fearing
it could fuel separatism among its own Kurdish population.

A rebel fighter in the Aleppo area said he did not expect
the ceasefire plan to work.

"The Russian jets will not stop bombing on the pretext of
Nusra and the Islamic State organisation, and will keep bombing
civilians and the rest of the factions with this pretext," said
Abu al-Baraa al-Hamawi, a fighter with the Ajnad al-Sham group.

"Everything that is happening is pressure to extend the life
of the regime," he told Reuters from the Aleppo area.

(Additional reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus, Orhan Coskun
in Ankara, Guy Faulconbridge in London and Stephanie Nebehay in
Geneva; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Giles Elgood)